Who, though, has been saying they played the wrong way? My attitude is if you try to destroy and dominate your opponent every single quarter of every single game, you're trying to ensure there's no chance you'll lose. No problem with that attitude.

Yes, it is too much to ask. I don't live my life according to the programming whims of ESPN2.

God knows, they could have pre-empted "Mike and Mike in the Morning," or better yet, fucking "Cold Pizza," and showed it live.

beefncheddar said:

Considering the stage, and what he had to work with, was Brown's Olympic experience the worst job of coaching in sports history?

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It cannot be reiterated nearly enough what a horrible job Brown did in 2004 -- the worst coaching job in the history of basketball.

More than that, the delusion a lot of people have (fueled by Brown's bag-lickers in the media) that Brown is some wizard genius with some special knowledge of, uhmm, "the right way to play" needs to be dumped upon at every opportunity.

Larry Brown doesn't know "the right way to play" any more than you, me, Joe Schmoe, or 50,000 basketball coaches in the US (or around the world). He knows "A" right way to play, that if you have good players and you execute properly, using his methods you can win. (Just like you can win if you have good-enough players executing the Loyola Marymount system well enough).

Worse than that, Brown's "right way to play" is a boring, passive, gutless way to play which is predicated completely on his own players' fear: fear that you might take a bad shot, fear the other team might get a rebound, fear that you might make a turnover, fear the other team might score if they get the ball back, fear you didn't use up enough of the shot clock, fear your starters will get tired if you don't hold down the pace of the game, fear the ditzy-old-lady coach will be up off his seat like a poodle dog yapping at you every goddamn time down the court because you took a bad shot, made a turnover, whatever. It is a pain in the ass to watch, as a fan, and a pain in the ass to play, as a player. Even when you win, there's no joy in it -- just a completely wrung-out feeling that somehow you managed to survive, despite all the horrible things you did wrong.

The way this team playing is completely different: "The hell with being afraid. Let the other teams be afraid."

The 2004 Olympic team was destined to crash and burn as long as Larry Brown was the coach. Brown is a very good basketball coach. But as Starman has causticly pointed out, Brown coaches The Larry Brown Method of Playing Basketball (also known as Playing The Right Way). Larry Brown does not adjust to the talent that he has, playing up-tempo with an athletic roster and slowing down with a methodical team. Brown only slows down and despises playing younger players because younger players make mistakes (this is a big reason Brown so spectacularly crashed and burned with the Knicks, a team whose bet for long-term success was to rely on the team's promising rookies and athleticism). The 2004 Olympic team was just a more talented version of this year's Knicks.

The only guy on that roster who could truly succeed under Brown was Duncan. Anthony, James, Stoudamire and Wade were criminally under utilized because Brown hates playing younger guys. Who in their right mind would start Richard Jefferson over LeBron? Yet, Jefferson started all eight games. If you are going to assemble high-wattage talent, the point guard should be the most unselfish player you can find. Even a guy like Magic Johnson would be willing to play second-fiddle and worry about distributing the ball and only shooting when criminally wide-open (and Chris Paul/Kirk Heinrich are perfect for this role). Marbury is pretty much the complete opposite of what you are looking for -- a selfish, slashing PG who looks to create for himself first. I have 1/100th of Larry Brown's basketball knowledge, but it seems pretty obvious that with the 2004 roster, you force Wade to play PG, start AI, LeBron, Stoudemire and Duncan and run an up-tempo game. But Larry Brown is incapable of not coaching The Larry Brown Method of Playing Basketball.